Plot Synopsis (continued)
Returning
to their bus trip northward on the next bus, in one of the film's
funnier scenes, Ellie sits next to a fast-talking, obnoxious, traveling
salesman named Shapeley (Roscoe Karns), known for his trademark line:
Shapeley's the name - and that's the way
I like 'em!
The vulgar Shapeley makes an obvious pass at Ellie,
showing amorous attention toward her. When she comments on his talkativeness,
he quips back at her:
Well, shut my big nasty mouth! It looks like you're
one up on me. You know, there's nothing I like better than to meet
a high-class mama that can snap 'em back at ya. 'Cause the colder
they are, the hotter they get. That's what I always say. Yes, sir,
when a cold mama gets hot, boy, how she sizzles. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
(He nudges her with his elbow.) Now, you're just my type. Believe
me, sister, I could go for you in a big way. 'Fun-on-the-side'
Shapeley they call me, with accent on the fun, believe you me.
Overhearing their conversation across the aisle, Peter
stands up and confronts Shapeley. With a chivalrous manner, he discourages
the hassling advances by pretending to be Ellie's husband.
After dislodging Shapeley from the seat beside her,
she thanks him but he tells her that he shut the man up for his own
sake: "Forget it. I didn't do it for you. His voice gets on
my nerves." Forcing his worldly experience on her when she imprudently
wants to spend some of her fast-dwindling money on chocolate, he
tells her: "How do you expect to get to New York at the rate
you're going?...You're on a budget from now on...Shut up!" Possessing
a rich-girl attitude but lacking money, she realizes that she is
ill-equipped to argue with his condescendingly protective attitude,
experiencing for the first time what it is like to be helpless and
on her own.
Because of a storm that washes out a bridge, all passengers
are forced to find accommodations for the night in cabins at Dyke's
Autocamp [now known as a motel]. Quickly, street-smart Peter reluctantly
realizes that they must again pretend to be married, share a cabin
in the autocamp during the steady rain, and register as "Mr.
and Mrs.," to save both money and embarrassment. Ellie appears
out of the downpour at the cabin door holding a raincoat over her
head, and warily notices the two single beds in the room decorated
with chintz half-curtains. She is incredulous and quickly indignant,
feeling "an unpleasant sensation" that he has been referred
to as her husband:
Ellie: Darn clever, these Armenians? [Another similar
slogan, "Damn(ed) clever, these Chinese!", was popular
during WWII.]
Peter: Yeah, it's a gift.
Ellie: I just had the unpleasant sensation of hearing you referred
to as my husband.
Peter: Oh yeah, I forgot to tell ya about that. I registered as Mr.
and Mrs.
Ellie: Oh, you did...Well, what am I expected to do? Leap for joy?
Peter: I kinda half expected you to thank me.
Ellie: Your ego is absolutely colossal.
Peter: Yeah, yep. Not bad. How's yours? (He shuts and locks the door.)
Ellie: You know, compared to you, my friend Shapeley is an amateur.
Just whatever gave you any idea I'd stand for this?
Peter: Hey now, wait a minute. Let's get this straightened out right
now. If you're nursing any silly notion that I'm interested in you,
forget it.You're just a headline to me.
Ellie: A headline? You're not a newspaper man are you?
Peter: Chalk up one for your side.
He explains that he is a newspaper reporter and needs
to sell the "exclusive"
story, "a day to day account" chronicling her "Mad Flight
to Happiness," to his editor/boss to be in good graces and get
his job back. He blackmails her to stay with him on the trip so he
can help her reach King Westley. She is appalled and outraged, regarding
him as an uncouth opportunist in her derogatory, sarcastic response: "There
is a brain behind that face of yours, isn't there? You've got everything
nicely figured out for yourself." If she rebels against him, he
threatens to turn her over to her father: "Now that's my whole
plot in a nutshell. A simple story for simple people. If you behave
yourself, I'll see that you get to King Westley. If not, I'll just
have to spill the beans to Papa."
In the very famous "Walls of Jericho" scene,
one of the highlights of the film, he divides their twin-bedded bedroom
into two parts by stringing up a clothesline. Then, as he drapes
a blanket over the line between their two beds, she dryly observes: "That,
I suppose, makes everything quite all right?"
[The blanket symbolizes the wide gulf in classes that exists between
them.]
He explains the arrangement:
Well, I like privacy when I retire. Yes, I'm very
delicate in that respect. Prying eyes annoy me. Behold the walls
of Jericho! Uh, maybe not as thick as the ones that Joshua blew
down with his trumpet, but a lot safer. You see, uh, I have no
trumpet.
Peter reassures her that he does not have a trumpet
like Joshua did in the Bible to bring down the walls. He gives her
his best pair of pajamas. When she is dubious about the arrangement,
remains at the door, and refuses to go to her side of the wall "to
join the Israelites," he undresses in front of her, taking one
article of clothing off at a time, discoursing on the various ways
men undress:
Perhaps you're interested in how a man undresses.
You know, it's a funny thing about that. Quite a study in psychology.
No two men do it alike. You know, I once knew a man who kept his
hat on until he was completely undressed. Now he made a picture.
Years later, his secret came out. He wore a toupee. Yeah. I have
a method all my own. If you notice, the coat came first, then the
tie, then the shirt. Now, uh, according to Hoyle, after that, the,
uh, pants should be next. There's where I'm different...
He has bared his chest without an undershirt [said
to set off a no-undershirt fashion trend at the time]. He demonstrates
his shoes-before-pants style, and when he gets to his belt buckle
warns: "After that, it's every man for himself." When he
reaches for his belt and trousers, she hurriedly retreats to her
side of the bedroom, and acquiesces in the arrangement. Later, he
assures her:
Don't be a sucker. A good night's rest'll
do you a lot of good. Besides, you got nothin' to worry about.
The walls of Jericho will protect you from the big bad wolf.
As he mockingly sings the tune, Who's Afraid of
the Big Bad Wolf? she finally follows his lead on her side
of the room and prepares for bed. Silhouetted against a rainy backlit
window, she undresses in the dark, and flings her sexy undergarments
over the top of the blanket. He lies back, smokes a cigarette,
and stares up at the ceiling, requesting: "I wish you'd take
those things off the walls of Jericho?" She then puts on his
pair of lent pajamas and slips into bed. To cut the nervous tension
and yearning across the blanket, Ellie anxiously sits up and asks
her 'husband's/partner's name:
Ellie: By the way, what's your name?
Peter: What's that?
Ellie: Who are you?
Peter: Who me? (smiling) I'm the whippoorwill that cries in the night.
I'm the soft morning breeze that caresses your lovely face.
Ellie: You've got a name, haven't you?
Peter: Yeah, I got a name. Peter Warne.
Ellie: Peter Warne. I don't like it.
Peter: Don't let it bother you. You're giving it back to me in the
morning.
Ellie: Pleased to meet you, Mr. Warne.
Peter: The pleasure is all mine, Mrs. Warne.
A closeup of her face and hands as she lies in bed
(with eyes glinting in the light), and then a split-frame image of
both of them on opposite sides of the blanket lying on their separate
beds in front of rain-streaked windows, ends the scene.
The next morning, the sound of Ellie's millionaire
father flying over the autocamp on his way north to New York awakens
her sleep. The scene opens with a semi-domestic view of an American
couple at breakfast. Peter [in a role reversal] has bought the groceries,
set the table, and prepared and cooked eggs on the stove in the room
- and even pressed her clothes. After Ellie has stood in a long line
of bath-robed, middle-aged women and experienced the outside communal
Ladies Shower and the 'Hooverville' setting of the autocourt, she
sets the record straight for him, arguing that she is not a snobbish,
spoiled brat:
You think I'm a fool and a spoiled brat. Well, perhaps
I am, although I don't see how I can be. People who are spoiled
are accustomed to having their own way. I never have. On the contrary.
I've always been told what to do, and how to do it, and when, and
with whom. Would you believe it? This is the first time I've ever
been alone with a man!...It's a wonder I'm not panic-stricken...Nurses,
governesses, chaperones, even bodyguards. Oh, it's been a lot of
fun.
At breakfast, Peter gives the privileged heiress a
memorable lesson in the art of dunking doughnuts and how real folks
eat. He ridicules her inability to properly dunk:
Peter: Hey, where'd you learn to dunk? In finishing
school?
Ellie: Aw, now don't you start telling me I shouldn't dunk.
Peter: Of course you shouldn't - you don't know how to do it. Dunking's
an art. Don't let it soak so long. A dip and (he stuffs the donut
in his mouth) plop, in your mouth. Let it hang there too long, it'll
get soft and fall off. It's all a matter of timing. Aw, I oughta
write a book about it.
Ellie: (Laughing) Thanks, professor.
Peter: Just goes to show you - twenty millions, and you don't know
how to dunk.
Ellie: Oh, I'd change places with a plumber's daughter any day.
And then, to scare off a pair of detectives hot on
Ellie's trail who stop at their cabin and ask questions, he directs
and coaches her in a mock film scene - he musses up her hair, unbuttons
part of her collared dress to make her look disheveled, and cues
her with his loud, bullying voice. They pretend that they are husband
and wife - their third instance of pretending to be married:
Ellie: A man here to see you, sweetheart.
Peter: Who, me? You wanna see me?
Detective: What's your name?
Ellie: Are you addressin' me?
Detective: Yeah, what's your name?
Peter: Hey, wait a minute! That's my wife you're talkin' to. What
do you mean comin' in here? What do you want anyway?
Detective: We're lookin' for somebody.
Peter: Yeah. Well, look your head off and don't come bustin' in here.
This isn't the public park...
Playing roles within roles, they engage in a make-believe
domestic fight of a typically-married, quarreling couple - a rowdy
wife and her argumentative husband:
Ellie: Now, don't get so excited Peter. The man just
asked you a simple question.
Peter: Ohh. Is that so? Say, how many times have I told you to stop
buttin' in when I'm having an argument?
Ellie: Well, you don't have to lose your temper.
Peter: (mocking her) 'You don't have to lose your temper.' That's
what you said the other time too, every time I try to protect ya.
The other night at the Elks Dance when that big Swede made a pass
at ya.
Ellie: He didn't make a pass at me. I told you a million times.
Peter: Oh no. I saw him. Kept pawin' you all over the dance floor.
Ellie: He didn't. You were drunk.
Peter: Aw nuts. You're just like your old man. Once a plumber's daughter,
always a plumber's daughter. There's not an ounce of brains in your
whole family.
Ellie: Oh Peter Warne, you've gone far enough. I won't sit here and...
Peter: Aw, shut up!...Quit bawlin'! Quit bawlin'!
Embarrassed by witnessing their bursts of temper and
tears, the flabbergasted detectives leave as the automanager comments: "I
told you they were a perfectly nice married couple." As they
hurriedly prepare to board their bus to continue their flight, Peter
kneels to help Ellie re-button her blouse, complimenting her on her
inspired improvisation:
Peter: Hey you know, you weren't bad jumping in like
that. You've got a brain, haven't you!
Ellie: Well, you're not so bad yourself.
Peter: You know, we could start a two-people stock company. If things
get tough, we'll play the small-town auditoriums...
Ellie: What about Cinderella or a real hot love story?
Peter: Oh no, no, no. That's too mushy.
Ellie: Oh I like mushy stuff.
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